Con To Save, Con To Lie
by Unwillingly Me
Summary: Artemis didn't want to go on this mission. Sure, she didn't like being on "probation", but was going to high school with her brother worth her liberation? She was already past college education. And why was Apollo in charge? AU, no gods, no demigods.
1. High School's Hell, You Know?

**Hey, how's it going? Just kidding, I'm not expecting a reply. You probably have something better to be doing. Anyways, this is going to be very AU. There's no god, goddess, demons, anything like that. In place of Mt. Olympus, we've got a super secret agency going on called Olympus 12 (I'm so creative, right?). **

**Anyways, this is just a fanfiction. I have no plans of making any profit off of this. Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus belongs to Rick Riordan, along with all of his original characters.**

* * *

><p><em>Artemis looked at her brother. Her brother with his golden blond hair, practically glowing. With his green V-neck shirt and khaki shorts. Girls were swooning all over him, and they still hadn't made it into the school yet. Artemis was simply thirteenth best compared to him because he took up the first twelve rankings. She was average, though kind of short for a sixteen year old. And she had terrible posture. She slouched all the time, making her look insecure and shorter than she really was.<em>

"This is trash," Artemis muttered.

"What was that Arty?!" Apollo shouted over his ridiculously loud music.

"This is trash!"

"I thought it was a pretty accurate character description!"

"That's because you wrote it! I'm neither insecure nor short!" It was true. And she didn't slouch that much. It was barely noticeable now. Go back a few years and she would have had really bad posture. She was rather undeveloped, but she didn't care about that.

Honestly, she'd much rather have that than a bunch of idiot guys drooling all over her. This was the most ridiculous mission she had ever been sent on. And they just had to send her with her brother. Ever since the incident in Munich, Olympus 12 had been trying to keep her away from leaving headquarters.

You make one mistake and your career as an agent for a government-independent agency is practically destroyed. Now she was stuck going to high school, with her twin brother of all people. It was awful. She accidently got another Olympus 12 agent killed. She didn't expect the lizard to be so strong or for Zoe's father to kill his own daughter. But then, you could never count on anything anymore. But since it happened, Artemis Achristos was to blame. Artemis was there, so it was her fault. That's how Olympus 12 saw it.

"Don't blow our cover Arty."

"I won't." It was usually his fault that there cover was blown when they had to work together. He'd bed some girl, and he talked in his sleep… loudly. So the girl would typically ask what Olympus 12 was, and it would become Artemis's job to fix it all. Alter the girl's memories and make her forget about anything she might have heard about the agency. "Make sure you don't."

"Like I would. Come on." Apollo parked his car and got out. Automatically, girls were swooning over him. Artemis got out of the car and the comments changed immediately.

"_Is that his girlfriend_?"

"_It's got to be his sister. There's no way she could be dating him_."

"_She's kind of cute in that drowned cat way_."

School hadn't even started, and people already hated her because she got out of the car with her twin brother for school. People were just so infuriating. She hated them just as much as they hated her. When she was a full-fledged Olympus 12 agent, she had a squad all to herself. She was a prodigy, a genius. But Zoe died, so she was put on probation. It wasn't her fault.

Probation. It wasn't something she was supposed to be on. She was an officer. One mistake ruined everything she had been raised for. Fifteen and trained to kill, holding a "captain's" ranking. One year later, she was reduced to going to high school for a mission that her brother was in charge of. She didn't know what their objective was, for he decided not to tell her, saying that she didn't need to know yet.

Apollo had to check her schedule to see if they had any classes together. He seemed awfully excited for this whole experience of torturous exposure to a building full of annoying people their age, charged with hormones that made them ridiculously horny. Maybe because they would all be just like him, and then he wouldn't be the black sheep.

And then the stupid contraption on her locker wouldn't cooperate. _29-45-12_. She had dealt with locks far more complex than this without even knowing the combination. Why couldn't she open a cheap locker made for an average teenager? This was pathetic.

"Want some help Arty?"

"No!" she snapped, not wanting Apollo to think that he was better at something than she was. But after seven minutes of complete failure, she relented and allowed her twin to unlock her locker for her. "Thanks."

"No problem, little sis."

"I'm older than you!" She went to close the locker now that she had put away what needed to be put away. It wouldn't close. She tried slamming it, but it just rebounded and hit her in the face. "What's wrong with it now?!"

"You accidently locked it while it was open." Somehow Apollo managed to sort out that fiasco. "Have fun in Chemistry, alright Arty?"

"Don't call me Arty."

"See ya during lunch."

She got lost heading to Chemistry. This map she had didn't match up with the actual layout of the school, and there weren't any labels on it anyways. How was she supposed to know where she was going if she couldn't read her map? This was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

"Are you the new student?" The old man was bald, had an awful lisp with a monotone voice at the same time. Artemis automatically knew that she wasn't going to even come close to experiencing a decent review of chemistry in this class.

"Yes sir."

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" Introduce herself to the fools? That was juvenile. She shouldn't have to waste her time on introductions. She shouldn't have to waste her time here in high school.

"No sir."

"I'm sure they'd love to get to know you."

"I don't want them to know me." She knew she sounded like a child. Like she was the most immature being on the face of the planet. "But if I must, I must."

"Wonderful. Why don't you tell us all about yourself?" Artemis decided to be a smartass.

"My name is Artemis Achristos. I have a twin brother named Apollo. Our names aren't very creative. I never met my father, and my mother lives in Athens. I haven't seen her since I was two, and I have practically no recollection of my life in Greece. My surname Achristos translates to useless in English, and I find it to be the worst surname possible. I hate people, and most people hate me. I didn't want to attend high school, but I was forced to. My favorite color is silver. My favorite pastime is watching people suffer from afar. I find my brother to be annoying. I am a genius and could kill all of you in less than a minute if I found reason to. So you all are rather lucky I haven't found a legitimate reason yet. I am fond of the movie V for Vendetta. I hate fairytales. I have a record of hitting people that spontaneously begin singing songs from Frozen or other show tunes in general. In fact, I have yet to find any music I like. I hate poetry, particularly haikus."

"Miss Achristos, we don't-"

"I dislike meat pies, amputated body parts, and the thought of sexual intercourse. I am well learned in poisons, the method of decapitation, and how to avoid stupidity by attacking anyone who displays it." She went on and on, completely ignoring the teacher's pathetic attempts to interrupt her until he threatened to give her a detention. That was not something she would like to get on her first day of school. Even she had standards for something she hated to.

"You can sit behind Thalia."

"And that is?"

"Thalia, raise your hand please." No one raised their hand. No one looked inclined to raise their hand. And there were several empty seats, so Artemis couldn't just sit down in any one of them.

"That's Thalia," a student informed the short girl. Artemis nodded to acknowledge the black-haired boy that had pointed out Thalia. "And I'm Percy."

"Shut the fuck up Percy," the girl called Thalia snarled. Artemis really didn't like the position she was in, sitting behind Thalia and next to Percy. "She doesn't need to know everyone's name."

"That's Annabeth." He pointed at a blond girl, and then he pointed at a girl who looked like she had some sort of Native American background. "Over there's Piper."

"Very nice to meet you," Artemis said quickly. "But I think we should pay attention to the teacher."

"Fucking teacher doesn't even know what he's talking about." Thalia looked back at Artemis. "Yesterday he tried telling us that Na was iron. Anyone in AP Chemistry should know that Na is sodium, and iron is Fe, 'specially the teacher."

She was in AP Chemistry? With a guy that looked like he had no clue what was going on, a punk girl that's favorite word seemed to be fuck, a blonde that hadn't talked, and another girl that had smiled at her when Percy had tried introducing them? And the punk was saying that the teacher didn't know what he was teaching. What was this world coming to? Complete chaos, that's what.

Life was going to be a real nightmare.

The only good thing about high school was that Apollo couldn't bother her nonstop. He was in his classes and she was in hers. Artemis hadn't even seen him during lunch, but that might have been because Percy dragged her out into the courtyard so that she could meet a horde of teenagers that she shouldn't have minded meeting if she was a normal teenager.

There was Nico di Angelo and his older sister Bianca, who was suffering from sort of disease. Artemis wasn't really paying attention that much, though she felt bad for the girl. She was sick, and she had to deal with a brother that was kind of gloomy looking but was obsessed with some childish trading card game.

Piper McLean, the daughter of the famed Tristan McLean. They acted like Artemis should know who he was, so she pretended that she did. Piper was nice enough, kind of pretty. They had technically met in AP Chemistry, but Piper felt the need to re-introduce herself.

Annabeth Chase, an aspiring architect that had a debilitating fear of spiders. It seemed kind of pathetic, but Artemis kept her mouth closed.

Jason and Thalia. Thalia happened to be two years older than Jason but had been held back twice in elementary school due to her grades and terrible behavior. Jason however seemed to be the poster-child of good behavior with his neatly cut blond hair and nice casual clothes. Artemis noticed that he had a scar on his lip. And unlike Jason, Thalia had a mess of spiky black hair on top of her head, ripped black jeans and a Green Day shirt with the sleeves cut off.

Artemis wasn't sure what Green Day was, and she knew that she didn't want to ask Thalia what it was.

But other than that, school didn't seem too bad. Just classes full of material she already knew, silly homework that she had finished during class, and the boy, Percy Jackson, in all of her classes along with Thalia. And as the day went on, Artemis learned that Thalia was not as formidable as she had seemed during AP Chemistry. She was rather smart, but she also had a sense of humor. Fuck still seemed to be her favorite word though.

"Achristos," Thalia finally said in their English class. "D'ya speak Greek?"

"Yes." That was Artemis' quick, curt reply. She didn't want to get too far deep into a conversation. "Why?"

"You said you were from Greece, so I was wondering."

"Really? If I said I was a part of a secret society out on a secret mission would you believe me?" A mischievous grin had crossed Artemis' face. Of course, it was forced. She just wanted to see if her cover was strong enough.

"Nah, that's pretty hard to believe. You're just an immigrant whose mother did what was best for her kids." How nice. That was rather nice actually. Perhaps not all high school students were hormonal fools.

"You two in the back, Thalia and Artemis, you're going to have to be quiet if you want to stay in class." The English teacher obviously didn't know how to appreciate the bond between a trained liar and problem-child.


	2. Boarding With Drew's A Punishment

**It's been a while, hasn't it? I don't really know. I'm awful at keeping track of time. **

**I don't own Percy Jackson. Cool, we've got that out of the way.**

* * *

><p>Artemis hated boarding at this school. Her roommate was irritating her more than Apollo did. Was that possible? Evidently. Drew Tanaka, an irritating girl with an obsession with attractive males, and currently, the target of her obsession was none other than Artemis's brother. And she seemed absolutely appalled that Artemis knew everything about him. But wasn't Artemis supposed to know everything about him? He was, after all, her twin brother.<p>

"I bet he's got the best abs, and his eyes are perfect. And-"

"Isn't there someone that would actually care about what you think? Because I really don't. Please stop talking about my brother like he's a god. He is far from it."

"Why do you talk like you're at a formal event?"

"I have no clue what you are talking about. Please be quiet. I am trying to do my homework."

"You're so boring! And you look like a drowned rat!"

"That's funny. You remind me of an angry cat that was shaved everywhere expect on the top of its head. I suppose neither of us can do anything to improve the other's opinion."

"I bet you're friends with the weird people like Clovis."

"I'm sorry. Who is that?"

"That's right. You probably don't have any friends."

"You are most likely correct. I don't get along well with people. And if you aren't quiet, I am going to request to be transferred to another school. And chances are, my brother will insist upon leaving with me, saying that I am incapable of social situations and that I will need him around." That shut the girl up. Thankfully. It was a good thing that Artemis could usually convince people to shut up.

This homework was child's play. Algebra II. She had finished in a ridiculously fast amount of time. AP Chemistry was just as fast. French IV was a bore. English was simple. This was irritating. There had to be something that challenged her intellectually. Something had to be here in this school. Why did Apollo have to drive them to school if they were boarding in the first place?

She wished that not all people were like Drew Tanaka. She would most likely fail this mission if they were. She didn't even know what she was supposed to do with this stupid mission. Was she supposed to save someone? Recruit someone? What? Why couldn't she figure that out? Why did this have to be such a mystery?

Why couldn't she have been put in the position of authority over Apollo? Because she was on probation. Because Zoe's father had killed her maliciously. It still wasn't Artemis's fault though. Maybe if she had noticed the predicament earlier, she could have saved Zoe. Maybe if someone else in the Squad had looked over. After all, Artemis had been busy fighting off genetically mutated monsters. And as efficient as her gun had been, it had been foreign in her hand. Much lighter than she was used to, flashier than she was used to.

It wasn't her fault.

"Well, I'm going out. Don't stay up for me to come back. Because if I do, I'll have some fantastic company."

"Don't fret. I was heading out to the library anyways." Artemis opened the door for Drew, even though being polite was the last thing she wanted to do. In fact, she had a strong urge to close the door on the girl's heels then venture out to the library a bit later. Besides, she didn't really need to go to the library. It would actually be rather beneficial for her to go to a gym or something. She hadn't had the chance to really run for a while, since she had been on probation, pretty much condemned to office work.

Running around campus sounded enticing. So she politely closed the door after Drew had walked out and threw on some suitable clothes for running. The campus was large, so it took awhile for her to run around the perimeter, but she managed to. Then, she realized that it hadn't been that long. And another lap would probably take just a little longer since she had become a bit tired.

Was her assumption correct? Of course it was. She was, after all, a genius. However, due to the fact that she didn't even have her uselessly unreadable map, she was completely and utterly lost despite the fact that she was in front of her dorm building. All the buildings looked the same, and the sky had noticeably darkened since the time she had left her dorm room. She decided to go into the building labeled "Girl's Dorm", though it took a while to find the sign that said that.

As she walked down the hall, sweaty and tired, she noticed that people were staring at her for reasons she didn't know. So she tried to ignore them all. But it was rather difficult, since practically everyone was staring at her. It was like they all had stepped out of their dorm rooms in order to stare at her. It was unnerving to say the least. And she didn't like it at all.

The room she was stuck sharing with Drew was empty, thank goodness. Artemis grabbed some sleepwear and headed out to the showers, almost locking herself out of the room but remembering her key at the last minute.

Her shower was rushed as was her walk back to her room. Just being here set her on edge. She hated it. She hated it so much that words could not describe the amount of hate she was feeling. She loathed it here. She loathed her roommate, and she doubted that this was going to turn out like that Broadway musical Apollo ranted about a lot. What was it? _Evil_? _Wise_? _Green-Skinned Witch With Annoying Roommate_? None of those sounded right. Oh well, it wasn't like she actually cared about the name of the musical.

Nothing interesting was on television. Not even the documentary on World War II had managed to catch her interest. It was just a terrible day. This was worse than being stuck at Olympus 12 Headquarters. At least she was respected to a certain degree there. This, this was just humiliating. People were treating her like a science project about to explode in their faces.

Granted, there was no reason for them to trust her when she didn't trust them at all. What had she told them today? Mostly the truth. The only thing that she hadn't mentioned was Olympus 12, and that was because she treasured her life and didn't want to be executed or something awful like that. But that was the only reason why.

Today was one of those days that nothing seemed right. Hopefully, the next day would be better. Perhaps she could make a sort of change to fit in and become more inconspicuous. The last thing she wanted was to stand out. How was she to complete a mission if people kept staring at her like a disease, or an animal caged in the zoo?

Really, that was all that she was. An animal caged in a zoo. However, it was more like everyone else was the animals and she was the average human being that had been mistaken for a monkey somehow, someway, most likely from the stupidity of the people that ran this zoo called high school. It made her sick. It was nothing more than a pen for pigs. It was revolting.

And to make matters worse, she was being forced to room with a terrible girl with nothing better to do with her life other than fangirl over the more attractive spectrum of the male variety. If they were average, then she wouldn't care. Artemis had already figured that much about Drew.

Drew was vain, selfish, and downright awful. Maybe, somewhere deep down in her heart, Drew was a good person. But Artemis didn't care enough about Drew to try to find this nicer, gentler side of her, so oh well. It wasn't like it would affect Artemis anyways. This couldn't last too long. A month perhaps, two at the most. She was, after all, an elite agent for a top secret organization.

But until then, she would have to manage, even if it meant with her stupid roommate that would probably bring in some guy to copulate with. That thought absolutely disgusted Artemis, and she wished that she hadn't thought of it at all.

After all, who in their right mind would want to go to sleep with such a thought in their mind? Definitely not Artemis.


End file.
